Michael Madzo

“The paintings are made with various pieces of paper materials, all beginning with a single form or color. The painted image evolves steadily, piece by piece, taking on its’ form and direction by the addition of each individual piece of paper or paint. I work on many paintings simultaneously both small and large and often find portions of a painting migrating to another work in progress. As the pieces of paper are laid down, acrylic paint is used to over-paint and cement the pieces in place. Varnish is laid on top of the paint and then the colored threads are sewn throughout the work with a sewing machine. All paintings are original. I have been working in this manner for 24 years, showing primarily in Los Angeles, New York, Paris, Santa Fe and Mexico.”

This Is What I Know Among the Thousand Leaves Left Behind, 5’ x 4’, MM with cotton thread

A Drift of Wings, 17x14, oil on paper with cotton thread

Michael Madzo Bio

Difficult to describe, Michael Madzo’s artwork speaks for itself in luminous hues and vivid, often-times whimsical subjects. His trademark technique of sewing bits of his paintings together attracts attention both for its symbolism and for the rich texture it adds to the works. Madzo’s artwork is a synthesis of both traditional and textile art. “It just…happened one day, “he says thoughtfully, “I needed to join two sections together, and had tried everything else. So I thought I’d try sewing.” Collage was the result. In assimilating materials at hand, the artist created something new.

Many of Madzo’s images depict personae and creatures that are at once fanciful, grotesque, and heroic, and, at the same time, communicate a compassion and empathy that results in a haunting impression.

One of the most striking details of Madzo’s work is a specific type of eye. We see and experience with our physical eye, and then there is a spiritual eye. In Madzo’s work it is the spiritual eye. Madzo states, “This is an eye that is always looking back. I see the figures in my paintings as someone at the end of a fantastic journey.”

Mazdo’s figures speak chapters to anyone willing to spend time contemplating them. And where does Madzo go within himself and what are his thoughts when he encounters the body of his work, the living work, surrounding him in his studio? “It’s the mystery”, says Madzo, “It’s looking for liquid moments in this otherwise solid and stiff world. It’s a function of the artist. We learn how to go to the formless plain. I put the invisible and the indescribable into a form. It is a translation device – a facilitator. It is a collecting of moments.”

Michael Madzo graduated from Arizona State University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree. Since 1987, he has been represented by galleries in Los Angeles, New York, Paris and New Mexico.